It's a fitting response, really, for a band whose aesthetic consistency and modesty about their legacy and talent are their most admirable traits. The biggest difference between then and now? "Probably the fact that we don't play too often," Mercer says. "When we do play live, it's over a weekend; we don't rehearse that much. We really make the most of it when we do get together, and appreciate it a lot more, too. We don't take it for granted." ^

Honk! Fest blasts back into Providence The third annual "Providence Honk! Fest" (aka "Pronk!") rounds up 10 brass marching bands from Texas to Chicago to New York for a great big hootenanny in Providence on Monday, October 11.

The Molenes get dark and low-down Roots music is a big tent. The Molenes have poked their noses into just about every corner of it over the course of their first two records, trying out everything from bluegrass to rockabilly and moving from ripping twanged-out guitar solos to more refined acoustic finger-picking.

Scarlett is the new Black Olneyville's finest post-punk/goth/sludge metal outfit went missing for the better part of 2010, but we're ecstatic to report that Lolita Black has returned with a new lead singer in Ms. Scarlett Delgado.

WHAT'S F'N NEXT? FIDLAR | March 19, 2013 Ask FIDLAR bassist Brandon Schwartzel some basic questions about his band, and his answers reflect more than a bit of weariness with the rigmarole of publicity and music journalism.

THE EMPOWERMENT OF KATE NASH | March 05, 2013 Singer-songwriter Kate Nash was recently named a Global Ambassador for the Because I Am a Girl initiative, which aims to give females in developing countries the opportunity for a better life.

DESAPARECIDOS EXPERIENCE REBIRTH | February 20, 2013 In 2001, Desaparecidos were just another band formed by Conor Oberst, already a veteran of the Omaha music scene at the tender age of 21.

THERE’S HOPE FOR THE VACCINES | January 23, 2013 Every few years, a guitar band forms and swaggers up the charts on the strength of music that captures the UK's youthful zeitgeist.

THE BRIGHT LIGHTS OF ELLIE GOULDING | January 18, 2013 Long before Ellie Goulding hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in summer 2012 with "Lights" — a starry-eyed dance-floor trifle with subtle neo-disco beats and sleek keyboard burbles — the singer-songwriter was a star in her native England.